Pauls Epistle to Colossians (16)

Let's turn to Colossians 3, please.

Today is the 17th Lord's Day in which we are in this epistle.

We have been moving rather slowly, but today we will be taking a few leaps, bounding

forward, and hopefully get through the first 11 verses of Colossians 3.

We will see how it goes.

In Colossians 2, we read of the believers' union with Jesus Christ

that brought them into a vital living relationship with God through Him, through Jesus Christ.

For the Lord Jesus is the all -sufficient Savior and Lord of His people.

Paul asserted that in Christ the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily, and all who

are redeemed by Christ experience their fullness in Him.

The fullness of God was in Him, and we are complete or fulfilled in Him.

He is the center of everything to us as Christians.

His people are to view their identity and their purpose in life in their union with Him.

God had accomplished His blessed union for them when He caused each of them, one by one, to be born again.

They were brought into union with their Savior.

Their former lives had come to an end when they were converted to Christ, and their new life in Jesus Christ had begun.

They confessed this spiritual union in their baptism, showing they were dead now to

their former way of life and now living a new life toward

Jesus Christ.

They confessed their former life was over in their baptism, and now the new life in Christ lies

before them.

Paul urged these Christians at Colossae that they were not to allow anyone or any teaching

to take their sight and focus from Jesus Christ.

That was a problem Colossae had, and it is a problem that we have today.

There are those who would

take our eyes off the Lord Jesus Christ and put it on something else.

Anything else is a poor substitute if it takes us off the Lord Jesus.

We now arrive to Colossians 3 verse 1 and here the Apostle instructs his readers to live in a

manner consistent with their new life in Christ.

We want to begin with reading the first four verses in which this theme is set forth.

1.

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand

of God.

2.

Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth.

3.

For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

4.

When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in

glory.

There are really two commands here and an explanation.

Seek the things that are above, set your minds on things that are above, and then he explains why

we should do that.

Now Colossians 3 verse 1 -4 is actually a continuation of what the Apostle had just set forth in Colossians

2.

For there, after Paul had declared to them that their life was centered in Christ, he began to inform them how

they are to live out this life in Christ.

And so in Colossians 2 .20 -23, the last verses of chapter 2, we

read the question, if with Christ you died, and then he drew some

conclusions that flowed from that.

If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why do you live as though you were still governed by the principles of the fallen

world?

And now in Colossians 3 .1, we read the matter positively.

If then you have been raised with Christ, and then he draws some conclusions from that.

And so you see, it is a continuous message here.

If you died with Christ, and you did, well, what flows from that?

And now he is saying, if you are alive in Christ, what flows from that?

And that is what we have in verses 1 and following.

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

And so we see our union with Christ instructs us not only how we are not to live, verses

20 -23 of chapter 2, but it instructs us in the way that we are to live as Christians,

both negatively and positively and we are going to see that going back and forth when we work through this passage

before us too.

Now as we look at Colossians 3 .1 and following, we can see how it fits in the

larger context of the epistle.

And so here is an outline to this point.

Chapter 1, salutation or greeting.

Second major section, the person and work of Christ.

I did not put any sub points there, but that began with verse 3 of chapter 1 all the way through chapter 2 verse

7.

And then Paul addressed false teaching and its antidote.

And this continued from verse 8 of chapter 2 up through verse 4, which we just

finished reading.

And then within this section, false teaching and its

antidote, he argued in chapter 2 verses 8 -15, Christ is all and he is all you

need.

Second, therefore guard your freedom.

And then you died with Christ therefore, as we just pointed out, verses 20 -23.

And now fourthly, you rose with Christ therefore.

And so you can see he has got a flow of his argument here

that he is setting forth before his Christian readers.

Now again let's consider the first four verses of Colossians 3, which constitute one paragraph in our English

Standard Version, the ESV.

And again here we read instruction to Christians whose relationship with God and with God's world has been radically and forever

changed because they are in Christ.

And so verse 1, notice it is a conditional sentence that opens with a conditional clause.

If then you have been raised with Christ.

That is a condition, isn't it?

And then the conclusion, if you want a technical term for it, the

first clause of a conditional sentence is a protesis.

That is the if part.

And then the second portion, the then, what occurs is called the apotesis.

Protesis and the apotesis.

And you have a conditional sentence here.

If then you have been raised with Christ, the implication is then seek the things that are above where Christ is

seated at the right hand of God.

Now a conditional sentence will often begin its first clause beginning with the word if.

And a second clause begins with the word then or therefore.

Now we might read this at first glance and conclude that there is a

matter of doubt.

After all the question is asked, if you have been raised with Christ.

Is there doubt about that?

But actually in the Greek language which Paul originally penned this letter, there were

different ways in which one could express very precisely the certainty of a conditional sentence.

Depending on the words used in the beginning particle if in Greek, what word was selected,

and the tense of the verb used, various degrees of certainty are conveyed in conditional sentences in the New

Testament.

So here is where a little bit of knowledge of the Greek language is helpful.

And so sometimes a conditional sentence is worded which implies the statement is contrary to fact, and the implied

answer is no or it's not true.

And so an example of this would be when Martha said to our Lord regarding the death of her brother Lazarus, John 11, 21.

Then Martha said to Jesus, Lord, and here it is, if you had been here,

my brother would not have died.

Now the wording in this conditional clause, if you had been here, implies he was

not there.

And the way the Greek is constructed, it was obvious that that's what she was talking about.

It's as if she said, Lord, if you had been here, but you were not here, my brother would not have died.

But another form of the conditional sentence assumes the statement is true to fact.

Not contrary to fact, but true to fact.

An example of this would be when Satan challenged our Lord in his wilderness temptation.

Matthew 4, 6 reads, if you are the Son of God, now there is the protosist, the condition, if you

are the Son of God, throw yourself down.

In other words, from the temple, from the pinnacle, so everybody will look at you and know you're the Son of God and

follow you.

For it is written, he shall give his angels charge over you, and in their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a

stone.

Now the devil here was not challenging our Lord as to whether or not he was truly the Son of

God.

If you are the Son of God, in other words, prove it that you're the Son of God.

No.

For the manner of the condition is set forth assumes a true condition.

In other words, it was not as if the devil said to him, if you are the Son of God, prove it,

but rather he's saying, if you are the Son of God, and indeed you are, then throw yourself down off the pinnacle.

And so the devil knew he was the Son of God, and he wasn't asking Jesus to prove it.

He was asking, he was basically saying, since you are the Son of God, demonstrate it.

And the Lord, of course, turned him down.

And so it was not a challenging question, a challenge questioning the identity of the Son of God.

It was a challenge to our Lord to show forth that he was the Son of God by performing a miracle in order to

impress his observance as to his identity.

And so when a conditional sentence is expressed in this form, one could even use the word since rather than the word

if.

And some of the newer translations do that.

You'll read in the New King James, if something or something, and you'll read in the NIV, since

something is so.

And they're really rendering that type of conditional sentence as a certainty.

I think they're wrong to do so, because it is a condition, and you don't want to take away that condition.

There's no doubt that the reality is there that it's true, but it's being expressed in the form of a condition, and it

ought to reflect that.

I hear radio preachers doing that all the time, by the way.

They'll take a conditional sentence in this class of condition, and they'll say since instead of if.

And I know what they're doing, but I think that you really are becoming less precise

when you do so.

Now the conditional clause of Colossians 3 .1 is an example of this last form.

The matter is not in doubt, but rather it's assumed to be true.

It's as if Paul wrote, if then you've been raised with Christ, and indeed you have been raised with Him.

And when they read this epistle, that's how they would have understood it.

And so it's not a question if or not you have been raised with Him, but rather it's an implication.

Since you've been raised with Him, then do this, or think this way, or behave this way.

You follow what we're saying?

And so the matter of our having been raised with Christ is not in doubt, even though it's expressed in the form of a condition, if you've

been raised with Christ.

It is a true fact.

And so if this is true, and it is, therefore you ought to do what follows from that, seek the things that are

above.

And so he's writing to Christians.

If you've been raised with Christ, and you have been, then seek the things that are above, is what Paul

is advocating.

Now what is meant by the expression, seek the things that are above?

Well first recognize it's worded in the form of a command.

If you have new life in Christ, if you've been raised with Him, then you are to seek the things that are above, and you're commanded to do so.

If you're raised with Christ, seek the things that are above.

And so Paul had set forth the spiritual reality, you are raised with Christ, as a Christian.

He then set forth the spiritual duty that flows from that spiritual reality, you're to live in conformity to your

high calling.

F. F. Bruce, a commentator who's with the Lord now, but he was in the middle of the 20th century, a solid

guy, an English fellow.

He wrote, the Colossians knew that like their fellow Christians throughout the world, they had been raised with Christ, through faith

in the power of God, who raised them from the dead.

That they had been quickened with Christ when they were spiritually dead.

Every time that they recall their baptism and it's meaning, they ought to be impressed afresh with the

reality of their participation in Christ's death and resurrection, and draw the logical and practical

conclusions.

Lord willing, we'll be baptizing in a few weeks.

And I hope every baptized believer, when they witness that and see that, that they are affirmed in their own baptism and

what that means.

You no longer live as you once lived, when you were without Christ, but you have a responsibility as a Christian.

If their death with Christ severed the links that bound them to the old world order, which was trying to impose its dominion on them

again, their resurrection with Christ established new links, links with a new and heavenly order,

with the spiritual kingdom in which Christ their Lord was sovereign, ruling from the place of supremacy to which he had

been raised at God's right hand.

Paul wrote, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

This speaks of Jesus Christ as the enthroned King, the Lord of heaven and earth.

He's King of kings and Lord of lords now.

He's at the right hand of the Father.

And you died your own life, you're alive in Him, and therefore this is what you ought to do, you ought to seek those things that are above.

It's talking about seeking the Lordship of Jesus Christ and seeking to submit to Him, understand Him, and

obey Him, and follow His leading and guidance, and looking for His strength throughout life.

Seek the things that are above.

He's the one with whom we have to do, and so let us seek to learn what He would have us do.

Let us seek to be conformed to His will.

Seek the things that are above.

What God has done for us in Christ is both the incentive and the argument for authentic Christian living.

It flows out of what God has done for us in Christ.

We are citizens of a realm that has opened before us, and therefore we should live as citizens of that realm in this

fallen world.

And so the idea being conveyed is that we have become participants in a new world order.

The promised age to come, foretold in the Old Testament, has been realized through Jesus Christ.

God has raised His people in Christ Jesus.

They possess the life of the resurrection in themselves.

Therefore, they need not await the second coming of Christ in order to experience life in the eternal state.

They have the power of the resurrection now in their lives.

Christians have the ability, and therefore they have the responsibility, to experience in increasing

degree in the life now they are living, the life now they are to

experience, what one day they will experience in fullness when God raises

us from the dead.

And so for Christians, let their union with the exalted Christ transform their entire life,

mind, heart, and will.

Again, as F. F. Bruce stated, what are the implications of being raised with Christ?

This, that believers have now no life of their own.

Their life is the life of Christ, maintained and being by Him at God's right hand

and shared by Him with all His people.

Their interests must therefore be His interests.

Instead of waiting until the last day to receive the resurrection life, those who have been raised with Christ

possess it here and now.

The new creation, the regeneration, has already begun in them.

Spiritually, that is to say, in Christ, they belong already to the age to come and enjoy

its life.

We should be enjoying what we will receive in its fullness in eternity, but we have it now.

And we are to live accordingly.

This should govern how we think, what we value.

It should govern our aspirations, our desires, our designs in life.

So how do we obey this command, seek the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God?

The answer begins to flow in verse 2.

Set your minds on things that are above and not things on the earth.

That is pretty simple and straightforward.

Our way of life should be characterized by setting our minds upon the will of God for us in Christ, our risen Lord and Savior.

We are to set our minds to view ourselves and the world through the lens of Jesus Christ, enthroned in heaven.

He is King.

He is Lord.

We are not distressed like the world is.

Now we are concerned for our nation.

We are concerned for the world.

We are in a nosedive, aren't we?

It would seem, in many ways, worldwide.

Economic things are happening in the world right now that could

snowball in no time.

We could have some real tough times ahead.

But we are not distressed.

We watch with interest and concern.

We are concerned about the difficulty and hardship it is going to pose to many.

We know that King Jesus is ruling, regardless of who wins in November.

It is the Lord Jesus who places that person in.

It could be a person who will bring blessing to us, or it may be a person who will result in

his cursing, depending on what, as a nation, we deserve.

I ask the question, what do we deserve?

I don't even want to answer that.

But we are optimistic, aren't we?

Because Jesus Christ is in heaven.

So we don't despair.

We are not distressed.

We are at peace.

The Lord's kingdom is advancing.

He is going to see to it.

And difficulties in the world sometimes bring a great advance to the kingdom in short time.

And we would like to see that, certainly.

We are to ponder those things that we have in Christ.

And this knowledge that we are in Christ should inform our way of assessing ourselves and the world in which we live.

And so this view of ourselves, of having our mind fixed on the things that we have in Jesus

Christ above, may be contrasted with those who are Christian in name only, but who are

actually strangers to Jesus Christ.

And there are many nominal Christians who claim all day long that they believe on Jesus as their Lord

and Savior.

But their life doesn't demonstrate it.

They are not obeying this command.

They are not seeking the things that are above.

But rather they might be as those whom Paul wrote about in Philippians 3.

He first described his own efforts and designs and desires,

and then he spoke about some others.

Not that I have already attained or am already perfected, but I press on that I may lay hold of

that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.

Brethren, I do not count myself to apprehended, but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, reaching forward

to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ

Jesus.

Are we putting forth that kind of effort?

Do we have that kind of concern that is governing our thinking and our lives?

Well, then he applied it to themselves.

Therefore, let us, as many as are mature, have this mind, and if in anything you think otherwise, God

will reveal even this to you.

Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind.

And why did he press this?

Because there are others around them that were telling him differently.

Brethren, join and follow in my example, and note those who so walk as you have us for a pattern.

Paul says, follow me in my example and find people that follow the same course I do and follow them.

And then he reasons why in verse 18.

For many walk.

That is Christian language.

In other words, this is their Christian walk.

They claim to be Christian.

Many walk of whom I have told you often, now tell you even weeping, they are enemies of the cross of Christ.

That is, they don't live their lives as though they are crucified with Christ.

They are living for the world.

They are living for themselves.

Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly.

See, Christ isn't their God, although they would claim Him all day long to be, but really it is their

own fleshly lusts, desires that govern their action and their life.

Whose glory is in their shame, they rejoice in glory in things they ought to be ashamed of.

And then notice, who set their mind on earthly things.

See, they are not seeking the things that are above, Colossians 3, verse 2, but rather

they are setting their mind on earthly things.

And then he reasons why that is so incongruent with the Christian life.

For our citizenship is in heaven from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,

who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body according to the working by which He is

able even to subdue all things to Himself.

Now, what Paul is doing here is setting forth the way of

sanctification for the Christian.

And the way of sanctification is not laying out a bunch of laws that you follow and obey

apart from Christ, but rather it is the law of God under Christ

that we are to give attention to.

But what is being implied in this activity is setting our minds on things above.

The result is that the things of this earth, that being our sin, will lose its appeal and power over our lives.

Now the legalist just looks at the law, thou shalt not.

The spiritual Christian looks above at Christ and at Christ, his desires for Christ, his love is for Christ,

he wants to conform his life to Christ, seek the will of Christ.

The things of sin and earth fall away.

Their attraction and the desire for those things diminish, even while your

desire and attraction for Christ becomes more inflamed.

And so to the degree that we are successful in seeing life in this way, the sin that

characterizes us will weaken in its power over us.

We sing a hymn that I remember in writing about this, that says this

very thing.

O soul, are you weary and troubled?

No light in the darkness you see.

There is a light for a look at the Savior and life more abundant and free.

To death and to life everlasting he passed, and we follow him there.

Over us sin no more hath dominion, for more than conquerers we are.

His word shall not fail you, he promised.

Believe him and all will be well.

Then go to a world that has died, his perfect salvation to tell.

And then here is the refrain that was sung between each one of those verses.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow

strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.

And that is exactly what Paul is saying here in Colossians 3.

Some Christians get weighed down heavily because of their sin.

They are tormented by it.

Understand we ought to be tormented by our sin.

And all too often what happens is we become too focused on that sin.

We become very introspective and we begin to try and make amends and change and begin to focus on

things of the earth.

We start really living like we were before we were Christians.

We are to turn our hearts and minds to the Lord Jesus and set our minds upon him, our hearts upon him.

And we will see that that which ties us to the world and earth will weaken.

And our ties to heaven will grow stronger.

And we will begin to see ourselves becoming more holy in life

because that is where our desires and aspirations are.

And so those things that formerly bound us become less attractive to us.

And so we experience and we become more like Christ.

This is the dynamic of spirituality, spiritual life.

But again we tend to be a little legless.

Pastor just give me ten steps.

What am I supposed to do?

And they don't see their Christian life in terms of their union with Christ.

This is what Paul is talking about here.

Verse 3 gives a further explanation of this spiritual reality.

For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

This is not new information for Paul has already asserted this reality earlier.

But he repeats the truth here to reinforce that this is a foundational spiritual truth that governs how we live as

Christians in a fallen world.

The emphasis here however is the assertion that our new life in Christ is secure for us.

It is hidden in God.

Our life in Christ is not always apparent to us, certainly not visible to others about us.

It is hidden in God.

But it is a spiritual reality and it is secure for us.

It is hidden in God.

And then in verse 4 he directs the Christian's attention toward the day when our new life in

Christ will be finally and fully experienced and enjoyed by us.

When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

These aren't just words on a page, but there ought to be some spiritual apprehension and

appreciation, valuation of these things is very precious.

It's a spiritual reality true to every Christian, but the Holy Spirit is the one that takes this truth

and makes you vividly aware of the reality and the significance of it.

Probably for most of us as we are listening to this, they are just words on a page.

I came across this little testimony however of the Holy Spirit applying this truth to a

man.

This was probably 100 years ago.

Bishop Boole, he was a very good solid Bible expositor, tells

of a friend of his to whom early in his course those five words, Christ who is our life, were made

a new world.

As he walked back to his home over the dark fields from a mission service he had been conducting, these simple, these familiar words

passed through his soul in one of those moments of insight which God alone can explain.

Within ten paces as I walked, life was transformed for me.

He said, so wonderful was the discovery that the Lord Jesus Christ is not merely rescuer, friend, king,

but life itself, life central, inexhaustible, springing up within my soul, rising

to eternity.

That's what the Holy Spirit does.

If he blesses you with the truth, he helps you to see the reality of it and the significance of it

so that it's transforming.

It's not just the deadness of the letter on the page, but it's the reality in which the Spirit

informs and applies to our lives.

There are many that have never encountered any kind of experience like that and they are impoverished because of it, in my

mind.

Christ is our life and we are to see Jesus Christ as the center and meaning of all we are as Christians.

The scripture uses this kind of idea or language in a number of places.

Our Lord told his disciples, a little while longer the world will see me no more, but you will see me because I live, you will live also.

Here's the union.

2 Corinthians 4, 8 -10.

We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed.

We are perplexed, but not in despair.

Persecuted, not forsaken, struck down, not destroyed, always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus,

that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.

I remember a guy teaching or preaching in

an allegorical way.

I wouldn't commend his hermeneutics, but he was talking about the woman who

had that alabaster box of precious ointment that she broke and anointed the Lord

Jesus.

He went on to talk, this is how we need to be as Christians, broken before the Lord so that the fragrance of

Christ might fill the room and that others may be able to

detect it and see it within us.

I'm not so crazy about his method of interpretation, but I'd say amen to his

spiritual instruction.

Galatians 4, 19 reads, My little children for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.

He's speaking to professing Christians here.

Some of us, I think, ought to be deeply concerned for others of us until Christ is formed in us.

Where is it?

Where is the reality?

Paul expressed in Philippians 1, 21, for to me to live is Christ and to die is

gain.

The life that he lived was a life that we have in Jesus Christ.

That's how we ought to understand these matters.

So that's verses 1 -4.

Believe it or not, at the end of verse 4, it ends the first major division of the epistle to the Colossians.

Oftentimes our chapter divisions don't necessarily reflect where the division should be placed.

For up to verse 4 of Colossians 3, Paul is basically even

setting forth instruction as primarily doctrinal in content.

But now, beginning with verse 5 of Colossians 3, the Apostle begins the second division of his epistle, which is primarily

very practical in content.

But the first has to go first, and it leads to the second.

Doctrine is always first.

Practice flows from doctrine.

If you don't have right doctrine, you cannot have right practice.

If you have right doctrine, it better lead to right practice.

We've already dealt with the two chapters before us.

Now we have the two chapters in front of us.

Let me bring forward again our outline, just to see how this flows.

Again, we had the opening salutation, secondly the personal work of Christ, thirdly false teaching and its

antidote, through verse 4.

And now, the fourth division of the epistle, the Christian life in Christ.

And this begins with verse 5 of chapter 3 and continues through verse 6 of chapter 4.

And we can discern some divisions here.

Put off, verses 5 -11, Paul put on, verses 12 -17, be subject to,

chapter 3 .18 -4 .1.

And lastly, watch and pray.

And it's going to take us a couple of weeks to get through here, but we want to address the put off in verses

5 -11.

I want to read the entire passage so we get a sense of its

entirety rather than just piecemeal.

I think this would be helpful.

And by the way, this is how the epistle would have been read to the church at Colossae, probably in a single setting as a letter.

And so the instruction, verse 5, put to death therefore what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity,

passion, evil desire, and covetousness which is idolatry.

On account of these the wrath of God is coming, and these you too once walked when you were living in them,

but now you must put them all away, anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene

talk from your mouth.

Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self, that would be the life before you became a Christian, with its

practices, and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its

Creator.

Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, scythian, slave and free, but Christ

is all and in all.

Put on as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts,

kindness, humility, meekness and patience, bearing with one another, and if one has a complaint against

another, forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body, and be thankful.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns

and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Wives submit to your husbands as is fitting in the Lord.

Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.

Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.

Fathers, do not provoke your children lest they become discouraged.

Bond -servants obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye -services, people

-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord.

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as

your reward.

You are serving the Lord Christ, for the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done.

There is no partiality.

Masters, treat your bond -servants justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.

Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.

At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ,

on account of which I am in prison, that I may make it clear which is how I ought to speak, and walk in

wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.

Let your speech always be gracious, seething with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each

person.

There is the Christian life in Christ.

I don't know how many commands are here.

I didn't know how many.

And so before us are a number of very practical and straightforward commands that address specific sins that need to be forsaken by

Christians.

And this is the way unto Christian maturity, conforming your life to the word of God,

as the Lord enables you by His Holy Spirit.

Maturity would not result from esoteric communications with astral powers.

That's what the false teachers were telling those Christians at Colossae.

This is the way you can really get spiritual, by worshipping angels, being

communicated by them, and having these glowing subjective experiences.

No, it's not that difficult.

This is the way to Christian development and maturity, conforming your life to the law of

God in Christ Jesus.

The Reformation Study Bible footnote states the matter well.

The route to maturity is not the path of secret revelations or of self -punishing disciplines.

It consists in understanding and living on the basis of the believer's death, resurrection, and heavenly enthronement

with Christ.

The Colossians have a false notion of heavenly reality, which ironically leads them to fruitless efforts

on the earthly plane.

Fruitful living on earth begins, rather, with right understanding of heavenly reality.

Amen.

Stated in just a few words, the truth of the matter, the reality of the matter that Paul is setting forth

here.

You've got to know the truth, the doctrine.

It will set you free as you live your life in the light of

that.

So, verses 5 -11 we can just simply describe as putting off.

Again, verse 5, put to death therefore what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire,

covetousness, which is idolatry.

Paul instructs these Christians to put to death these sins.

The King James is perhaps more rhetorical which reads, mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth.

I like that.

I can memorize that.

Mortify therefore your members on earth.

And then it includes fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, covetousness, which is idolatry.

And so to put to death means that we are to remove these sins from us.

We are to repent of these and see to it that they are no longer practiced by us.

Who did it?

Matthew Henry wrote, the apostle exhorts the Colossians to the mortification of sin.

John Owen's works, perhaps the best volume in all of them.

It's volume 3, isn't it?

Volume 3, not 6, is it?

Volume 3.

The mortification of sin.

And if you want to read about sin and how to deal with it, John Owen, the mortification of sin, he

touches it all.

And it's online.

And so the apostle exhorts the Colossians to the mortification of sin, the great hindrance to seeking the things which are above.

Since it is our duty to set our affections upon heavenly things, it is our duty to mortify our members which are upon the earth

and which naturally incline us to the things of the world.

To mortify them is to subdue the vicious habits of mind which prevailed in your Gentile state.

Kill them, suppress them as you do weeds or vermin which spread and destroy all about them, as

you kill an enemy who fights against you and wounds you.

The New King James Version, and the King James, is more faithful to the Greek text.

It reads, therefore put to death your members which are on the earth.

The ESV avoids that language, but it shouldn't.

That's in the Greek text.

Perhaps the ESV translated it in order to avoid a difficulty in the translation.

How do you make sins your members?

I thought your members are your arms, your eyes, your feet, and it's describing these vices as members.

And I think they are trying to soften that incongruency, as it were, through their

translation.

John Calvin proposed why it was expressed by Paul this way, to mortify your members that are on the earth.

He makes mention of certain vices which he calls, not with strict accuracy, but at the same time elegantly,

members.

For he conceives of our nature as being, as it were, a mass made up of different vices.

They are, therefore, our members, inasmuch as they in a manner stick close to us.

He calls them also earthly, alluding to what he had said, not the things that are on earth, Colossians 3 .2,

but in a different sense.

I have admonished you that earthly things are to be disregarded.

You must, however, make it your aim to mortify those vices which detain you on the earth.

He intimates, however, that we are earthly so long as the vices of our flesh are vigorous in us, and

that we are made heavenly by the renewing of the Spirit.

This idea of Christians needing to put to death is somewhat of a paradox, however.

He is telling you to put to death the members in your body, and then he lists these sins.

But I thought we were already dead in Christ.

Isn't that what he asserted in Colossians 2, that we died with Christ?

And now he is saying to put to death your members.

It's almost a paradox.

For the scriptures had clearly taught us earlier that we had already died in our union with Jesus Christ, but here we are told to put to

death these sins.

The spiritual reality is that we died with Christ.

The practical reality is that we still have sins that we have to deal with, and that we must put them to death.

Paul is calling upon Christians to become in practice what they are in principle, dead to sin and alive to

God.

That's what you are in reality.

Now you need to live that way.

There are five sins listed in verse 5.

The first four are sexual sins.

The fifth is the sin of covetousness.

Later in verse 8 he identifies five more sins that concern anger and abusive

speech.

There are ten altogether here.

This is a partial list.

They are found elsewhere.

In fact, there are four or five of these in order that are found elsewhere.

I should have listed those, but I didn't.

In Paul's writings, he first identifies four sins that are to be mortified or put to death.

They are sexual immorality, impurity, passion, and evil desire.

The first speaks of evil deeds done, sexual immorality.

That's outward physical sexual sin.

But they stem from evil desires that a person has, which are driven by a person given over to passion and impurity.

Take note that these sins that Paul declared to be put to death by the Christian are not only those sins which are outwardly

committed, but they include sinful thoughts as well.

This is important.

New Testament Christianity is transformative from the heart, not just a change of outward behavior.

Our Lord taught his disciples that this was essential to the nature of true salvation.

He said, Do not think I came to destroy the law of the prophets.

I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.

For surely I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one tittle will by no means pass from the law till

all is fulfilled.

The Lord Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit, helps his disciples fulfill the law.

Not perfectly, but it is their governing code to Christ.

Whoever, therefore, breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.

Whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

For I say to you that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees,

you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

We have to be more righteous than the Pharisees.

How can that be?

They were very righteous,.

We think.

Here our Lord was not talking about the righteousness of justification which God gives as a gift through faith

alone in Jesus Christ.

The imputed righteousness of justification certainly exceeds the righteousness of the Pharisees, but rather our Lord

was speaking of practical righteousness here.

Unless you are more holy than the Pharisees were, you have no hope of salvation.

You will not be saved on the day of judgment.

The righteousness of the true Christian must be greater than the righteousness of the Pharisees, for theirs was only an

outward conformity to the law.

The righteousness of the true Christian, however, is internal as well as outward conformity.

And in Paul's instructions here, to put to death the desires, he is addressing not only outward conformity,

but he is moving toward inward conformity to the law of God.

The righteousness of the Lord Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit is able to

enable his people to experience.

Do you follow what I am saying?

Paul is making a command here to these Christians.

It is not just the outward things that you need to avoid, you need to go to the heart of it and put to death those

desires, those sinful desires, because those are what originate the actions in your

life.

Well after those four sexual sins, he mentions covetousness as the fifth sin, which he equated

with idolatry.

Covetousness is the desire to have more than what God or what Christ has righteously given you.

It is the failure of being content with what God has not given you.

You have to have more, more.

If you are not happy with what God gave you, you are covetous.

Covetousness is the inordinate desire for something different or more than what God has provided.

A covetous man will be an ungrateful man, for he is not content with the Lord's provision.

I was reading in the Old Testament of all the murmurings of Israel.

They were idolatrous, they wanted more, complaining against the manna.

So God gave them quail to the point they got sick, didn't they?

Many died.

He says those Israelites who complained against the provision of the Lord and were subsequently judged by the Lord.

Well then in verse 6, they must be forsaken, because on account of these the wrath of God is coming.

That is why you better get rid of them, because God's wrath is coming upon all those that are

characterized by these things.

The verb Paul uses is the present tense, for on account of these things the wrath of God is coming.

Present tense.

Sometimes it is referred to as a prophetic present tense.

The reason the present tense is used is to show the wrath of God is so certain of coming due to people committing their sins, it

is if the wrath had already arrived.

He is really pressing them on this.

If we are Christians, we will deal with these sins, for we know that God's wrath is upon

all who practice such things.

It doesn't matter if you claim to be a Christian.

You can claim all day long that you are under the blood of Jesus, and so it doesn't matter.

Your sins that you commit are forgiven.

The sins they commit out there are not forgiven because they are not under the blood.

That is not how it works.

God judges everyone according to a standard, and He doesn't lower that standard for anyone.

What He does through His grace and the power of the Holy Spirit is enable His people to arise and meet that standard.

Paul declared this in Romans 2.

He is trying to unsettle the Jews and the self -righteous people who thought they were holy.

Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are, who judge in whatever.

You judge another, you condemn yourself, or you who judge practice the same things.

You are living in the same way, but you think you have a different standard by which God is going to give you a pass.

But He is not going to give a pass to them.

But you live the same way.

But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things.

And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things and doing the same, you will escape the judgment of

God?

Rhetorical question implying, no, you won't.

Paul wrote of these matters to the church at Ephesus, But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not even be

named among you as is fitting for the saints.

This shouldn't be characteristic of Christians.

Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather

giving of thanks.

Why?

For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man

who is an idolater has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ in God.

In other words, he does not have salvation.

Let no one deceive you with empty words.

Many people are deceived with empty words today.

You can still have salvation in Christ and live like the devil.

For because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

Therefore, don't be partakers with them.

And Paul is arguing the same thing in Colossians 3.

Don't you be partakers of them.

Put to death those things.

Why?

Because the wrath of God is coming upon those that are doing those things.

Don't let that be you.

So these Christians need to put to death these sins.

For they are still troubled by them.

And Paul acknowledges this in verse 7.

In these, too, you once walked when you were living in them.

They were once living in them, but they had become Christians.

But these sins still troubled them, being committed occasionally by them.

And they must have put a stop to this behavior.

They didn't become perfect when they became Christians, but they are no longer as they once were.

And then in verse 8, Paul set forth the other sins which they needed to mortify.

But now you must put them all away.

Anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.

The Christian should be different than the non -Christian in the manner in which they speak to others.

The first three sins listed speak of attitudes of the heart.

Anger, wrath, malice.

The last two are sins of speech, which are expressions of the first three sins.

If we are characterized by anger, wrath, and malice, wishing ill of people, we need to put these to death.

They should not be seen or heard coming from a Christian.

Indeed, they cannot be.

A true Christian must put these sins away from him.

And realize a true Christian can be determined by his speech.

In fact, it will be a vital aspect of the judgment when each of us stand before the Lord Jesus.

For not only will our actions be judged according to the standard of God's law, but our speech will be judged

also.

And our Lord warned His disciples about this matter.

He said a man's speech will reveal what kind of man he is, whether he is of God or of the devil, whether he is a Christian or not,

on the day of judgment.

Either make the tree good as fruit grew good, or else make the tree bad as fruit bad, for a tree is known by its fruit.

Brut of vipers.

He wasn't talking lovingly to his disciples here, was he?

Brut of vipers.

How can you, being evil, speak good things?

For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

See, the speech will betray whether a person is a Christian or not.

A good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, brings forth good things.

An evil man, out of the evil treasure, brings forth evil things.

The bringing forth is the speech.

But I say to you that every idle word that men may speak, they will give an account of it in the day of

judgment.

Every word.

For by your words you will be justified, in other words, vindicated.

And by your words you will be condemned on the day of judgment.

When you stand forward, will your life prove that you are a Christian, or will it prove

that you are a hypocrite?

One of the bases of examination will be your speech.

The words you speak.

The words you write.

We need to put to death these things, because they will be damned who live in this way and die in this way.

One important source of evidence for our claim to be a Christian will be examined on the day of judgment by the words we speak.

James wrote about that in his epistle.

We won't read it.

Then in verses 9 and 10, Paul wrote, Do not lie to one another, seeing that you put off the old self

with its practices, and put on a new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its Creator.

Again, a person's speech is the issue.

Lying is not to be done by the Christian.

Why?

For you had denounced and turned away from that old self, that old way.

That's what non -Christians do.

They go about lying.

That's the way you were before your conversion, your new birth, your baptism.

You had confessed and shown forth your new life that the Lord had created in you, and now you are attempting to become like Him, your

Savior, who had redeemed you from your sin.

And then Paul concludes by setting forth the leveling effect of the death of Christ to redeem his people.

He renders them all as His without distinction.

There is no distinction between them any longer.

They are all who are in Christ.

They are all and in all.

Verse 11,.

Here there is not Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised.

Barbarians get the enslaved free, but Christ is all and in all.

He is at the heart, the sum of all things, Christ, who is our life.

And don't allow yourself or anybody else to divert you from Him.

Everything is in Him.

The source of life, the meaning of life, the answer to every question in life is in

Jesus Christ.

And may the Lord help us to see that clearly and embrace it fully and go

forth from this place living accordingly.

Amen?

Let's pray.

Thank you, our Father, for Your Word and the clarity of these words set

before us.

And we pray, Father, that You would be merciful to us and grant us grace that we

might obey Your command to set our hearts on the things

above, to seek You, our Lord Jesus, who is seated at the right hand of the Father,

and that we might be very diligent to put to death these things on the earth.

For we know that this world, this earth, is a fallen thing, a condemned thing that will pass away

one day.

But they who do Your will will abide forever.

And so help us, we pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.